


White Pamphlets

by VivaVia (QueenFisher)



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Prequal, Sherlock - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-10
Updated: 2013-10-10
Packaged: 2017-12-29 00:43:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/998826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenFisher/pseuds/VivaVia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock Flash Fiction- set when John is about eighteen and Harry's probably twenty, or a bit older. She's finding flyers around the house and isn't sure who they belong to. </p>
<p>I don't own these characters. Unfortunately.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Pamphlets

Harry discovered the first one on the upstairs landing, next to a laundry bin. It was a thin white pamphlet with _Considering the British Military?_ on the front in black script, with a drawing of the flag on it. It puzzled her, because their father was being eaten away by his illness and her younger brother John wanted to go to medical school. It wasn’t bothersome though, and she didn’t have second thoughts about chucking it.

When she found another pamphlet in the kitchen advertising military options outside of being a foot soldier, she was confused. Not for long though, when she realized John’s friend Andy was upstairs. The brochures must have been his. Harry dropped it on the counter on her way out, assuming it would be gone by the time she finished work at the restaurant.

It wasn’t. There was no sign of Andy when she got home, but the pamphlet remained.

“How’s dad doing?” her brother asked. He was at the table, reading a chemistry book.

“He’ll be in the hospital for another week,” said Harry.

“He’d better stop being stubborn and takes those stupid drugs. You need that money for university,” John scowled.

“I’ve told you, I don’t need it. It’s better for me to train in a real kitchen. And it leaves more money for you,” she replied. John didn’t speak, just shifted around and kept reading.

“When are you seeing Andy again?” Harry asked, turning on the stove.

“Not till Tuesday. He’s away for long weekend,” John said.

“Well, he keeps leaving these brochures here. I’ve found two,” Harry gestured to the pamphlet on the table. John licked his lips like he did when he was unsure about something, closed the book, and walked up to the counter next to the brochure. She noticed him wringing his hands together nervously.

“Actually, that’s mine,” John told her. A million thoughts crashed into Harry’s mind at once.

“John Watson you are not joining the army,” she finally said.

“Hear me out,” he started. “I thought you’d be against it but-,”

“Yes I bloody am against it,” Harry cut him off.

“Just listen! It’s not that bad actually,” John pleaded.

“What happened to medical school?” she sighed.

“Do you have any idea how expensive it’ll be for me to become a doctor?”

“Do you have any idea what the army means?”

And he did. John, her little brother John, who she remembered running around this same house as a toddler, knew exactly what the military entailed. He told her every benefit and every drawback, all the pros and cons. And with their only parent slowly dying of expensive hospital care and neither of them having a real job, there were many, many more pros. Harry stopped stirring the stock and pursed her lips. The thing was, she knew he was right. She looked at her brother, who had gone back to his book, and something in his face told her he had already made the decision, one she wasn’t going to be able to change. Her mind filled with images of her younger brother in a war, explosions surrounding him. The picture of him running down the hall turned to running in vain for his life, victim of a predator she couldn’t control. It was her worst nightmare. 


End file.
